Australia’s wild west: Why are so many horrors set in the outback?

Press/Media: Press / Media

Description

What is it about the Australian bush that proves so spine-chilling on-screen?

Period04 Jan 2024

Media contributions

1

Media contributions

  • TitleAustralia’s wild west: Why are so many horrors set in the outback?
    Degree of recognitionNational
    Media name/outletThe Sydney Morning Herald
    Media typeWeb
    Country/TerritoryAustralia
    Date04/01/24
    DescriptionInterview with Nell Geraets.
    • Why do you think the Australian Outback is a popular setting for a number of thriller/horror films?
    One of the biggest draws of the Outback setting is the ways it can subvert familiar tropes of the Outback as benign, wholesome, or “boring” to create horror and playing on audience knowledge of the very real dangers in the outback: isolation, extreme temperatures, and unfamiliar locals. It’s also a beautiful and unique landscape, and a low-budget option – you don’t need expensive or intricate set design to convey the Outback’s beauty, or it’s desperate isolation.
    • Approximately when did the Australian Outback begin to appear as a setting in horror/thrillers?
    The Australian Outback horror setting became distinct around 1970 and was especially utilised by Ozploitation films. Prior to 1970, most films set in the outback tended to be wholesome and family friendly, particularly from the historical and western genres.
    • What is it about the Outback (specifically/physically) that makes it perfect for scary films?
    In terms of survival, the physical isolation of the Outback prevents escape, functioning as a cage without bars. This is an inversion of the common claustrophobic horror setting – it’s so open and remote, so far from help and life-saving resources, that the viewer experiences those same feelings of being trapped. The cultural knowledge of violent and disturbing crimes occurring in the Outback imbues the setting with a sense of genuine danger – we don’t even need to know the specifics of such crimes to be aware of their existence, and that the Outback setting contributed to violence and death. Outback horror is often tapping into such pre-existing fears, intensifying, and literalising them for the audience. These begin with colonial anxieties about the Outback, which have a tradition of viewing the land as alien and hostile. Today, this dark version of the Outback continues to be understood in similar ways – conveying anxieties of rural culture as being violent, racist, and misogynistic.
    • What are some Aussie Outback horror films that stick out to you and why?
    So many to choose from! Wake in Fright (1971) for its portrayal of a deeply unsettling Outback culture, at first a source of alienation, and eventual brutal horror for the protagonist. Night of Fear (1972), a little-known Ozploitation film which offers an early example of the themes and tropes of “rural horror” which later became popularised by more successful films. Wolf Creek (2005) is notable for the ways it plays on the audiences understanding that horrific crimes have occurred in the Outback, heightening that sense of real danger. Lake Mungo (2008) is a deeply unsettling and eerie film which uses the landscape to underscore feelings of dread in the viewer. Finally, Wyrmwood (2014) for how it forgoes the subversion of rurality, and instead pits the skills and sheer grit of its Outback protagonists against a zombie apocalypse.
    Producer/AuthorNell Geraets
    URLhttps://www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/australia-s-wild-west-why-are-so-many-horrors-set-in-the-outback-20231130-p5eo5o.html
    PersonsElise Rosser